6 August 1890 – William Kemmler | Execution of the day Execution of the day 6 August 1890 – William Kemmler William Kemmler The first person to go to the electric chair in America was William Kemmler. He was found guilty of murder after he butchered his partner. But he didn’t go quietly. Burying the hatchet Kemmler had killed his common-law wife Tilly Zeigler after he took a hatchet to her. And he was found guilty of murder in New York in 1890 and sentenced to go to the electric chair. Electrocution was highly controversial, but despite lobbies to get the penalty changed to a more humane method, his execution took place. Kemmler took his penalty very stoically. But the irony of his final words ‘Take it easy and do it properly, I’m in no hurry’ hit hard. Horse trials Understandably the electrocutors were in dire need of practice, this being their first time. Despite successfully electrocuting a horse as a trial run, they misjudged the current necessary to kill a man.

According to the ‘New York Times’, R C Barnes, who had tuned the electric chair being used, went on record with the statement ‘no electrician who understands the subject and knows what the apparatus is can doubt that it will kill Kemmler’. But he had based his supposition on the fact that they’d use around 15,000 volts. Shallow fried In actual fact, a mere 1,000 volts coursed through Kemmler’s body for 17 seconds, on the presumption that that’d kill him. Despite the smell of frying flesh, Kemmler was still breathing at the end of his electrifying session. A second stint, this time of 2,000 volts ran through Kemmler’s body. The electricity caused his blood vessels to rupture and blood to ooze before his body eventually caught fire.

The whole thing took an agonising eight minutes causing one spectator to comment: ‘They would have done better using an axe.’ Bookmark this site First execution by electric chair - Aug 06, 1890 - HISTORY.com First execution by electric chair Share this: First execution by electric chair Author First execution by electric chair URL Publisher A+E Networks At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution in history is carried out against William Kemmler, who had been convicted of murdering his lover, Matilda Ziegler, with an axe. Electrocution as a humane means of execution was first suggested in 1881 by Dr. Albert Southwick, a dentist. Southwick had witnessed an elderly drunkard “painlessly” killed after touching the terminals of an electrical generator in Buffalo, New York. In the prevalent form of execution at the time–death by hanging–the condemned were known to hang by their broken necks for up to 30 minutes before succumbing to asphyxiation. In 1889, New York’s Electrical Execution Law, the first of its kind in the world, went into effect, and Edwin R.

Davis, the Auburn Prison electrician, was commissioned to design an electric chair. Closely resembling the modern device, Davis’ chair was fitted with two electrodes, which were composed of metal disks held together with rubber and covered with a damp sponge. The electrodes were to be applied to the criminal’s head and back. On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler became the first person to be sent to the chair. After he was strapped in, a charge of approximately 700 volts was delivered for only 17 seconds before the current failed. Although witnesses reported smelling burnt clothing and charred flesh, Kemmler was far from dead, and a second shock was prepared. The second charge was 1,030 volts and applied for about two minutes, whereupon smoke was observed coming from the head of Kemmler, who was clearly deceased. An autopsy showed that the electrode attached to his back had burned through to the spine. Dr.

Southwick applauded Kemmler’s execution with the declaration, “We live in a higher civilization from this day on,” while American inventor George Westinghouse, an innovator of the use of electricity, remarked, “They would have done better with an axe.” Related Videos Execution Methods Throughout History - ALLDAY Execution Methods Throughout History By Josh Aden Photo: Afp/AFP/Getty Images On this day in 1890 at Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler became the first person to face execution by electric chair. As U.S. states continue to debate the legality of capital punishment, we look back at some of the most horrifying forms of execution people have used throughout the centuries. Crucifixion Afp/AFP/Getty Images Crucifixion is, of course, famous for the role it plays in the history of Christianity, but the crucifix was an ancient form of execution used throughout antiquity well before the time of Jesus. In this method, the victim is nailed through the hands or arms and feet to a wooden cross and hung to suffer a slow, painful death. Usually the victim would die by suffocating, but it could also be from heart failure, shock, or any number of other causes.

Page 1 / 1 Take A Moment To Share Advertisement richardnilsen.com Another ancient form of execution is burning at the stake. Many civilizations and cultures used this tradition, and each held their own set of beliefs about it. The process involves tying the victim to a large, vertical stake with a bonfire built around it. If the victim was lucky, other people would be executed along with them, requiring a larger fire. That meant the victims would often die by carbon monoxide poisoning rather than roasting alive. Blood Eagle 4plebs.org The blood eagle was a brutal method of execution used by the Norse Vikings in the Middle Ages. Often referred to in the Nordic sagas, victims of execution by blood eagle had their ribs cracked open through their back with an axe before their lungs were removed and set outside the body. If the victim didn't go into shock, they died from suffocating. Still, there was an upside to dying by blood eagle: Supposedly, if the victim suffered in silence without a single scream, it would buy his way into Valhalla to feast and fight with the gods.

Hanged, Drawn, and Quartered Wikimedia Commons In Medieval England, those convicted of high treason were treated to a particularly brutal form of execution. First, the victim was fixed to a wooden panel that was drawn through town by a horse to the place of execution. Then, they were hanged, usually in front of a jeering crowd, until they were close to death, which could take hours if done properly. Finally, the victim was chopped into four pieces—or they were quite literally quartered. This punishment was reserved for men, as it was considered bad form to execute women this way. It was considered more humane to burn them at the stake, instead. Pressing streetsofsalem.com Crushing a person to death has been used as a means of execution for more than 4,000 years. The Aztecs used it and in Southeast Asian cultures, rulers would train elephants to slowly crush a victim to demonstrate their ability to control nature. This method was used by rulers in Vietnam up through the 19th century. In Europe and later North America, pressing was used as a means of torture and execution. The victim would have increasingly heavier stones or weights placed on their chest in the hope that their torturer could extract a confession.

Often, though, the person's rib cage would shatter under the weight, or they would simply suffocate. Hanging Wikimedia Commons Hanging by the neck became a popular form of execution in the Middle Ages. In this well-known method, the victim has a rope tied around their neck and is then suspended so that they either suffocate or their neck breaks. The oldest forms of hanging saw the victim raised from the ground by the neck so that they suffocated. Later methods had them standing on something like a stool, cart, or ladder that was removed so the victim dropped. Later, specially-built gallows were constructed with trap doors so victims would fall through to their deaths. In the 1860s, an Irish doctor published a paper that standardized a 4-6 foot drop so that the victim was almost always guaranteed to have their neck broken. It was adopted by most of the world as the most humane form of hanging. Death By Bamboo w8themes.com In some Asian cultures, bamboo was used as a means of torture or slow, painful execution. The victim was tied down over young bamboo shoots.

Bamboo grows really quickly—sometimes up to a foot in a day—so the victim was slowly impaled as the bamboo grew and eventually pierced their body. Guillotine allthingscrimeblog.com Beheading is an ancient form of execution, but the French made the process eerily efficient during the French Revolution. During the Revolution's Reign of Terror, tens of thousands were beheaded in a wave of class conflict that changed the face of France forever. Joseph-Ignace Guillotine, a physician, suggested a more ethical means of beheading, as it often took several strokes of the sword or axe to sever a victim's head. He invented a machine, the guillotine, that took the head off in one swift stroke. The guillotine was still used in some countries into the 20th century. The Nazis beheaded thousands using guillotines, and in East Germany the Stasi used them to perform secret executions. Firing Squad On This Day On August 6, 1904, Harper's Weekly featured a cartoon about the 1904 presidential campaign. (See the cartoon and read an explanation.) On this date in: The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia began to debate a draft of the U.S.

Constitution. 1806 The Holy Roman Empire went out of existence as Emperor Francis I abdicated. 1825 Bolivia declared its independence from Peru. 1890 Convicted murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in the electric chair as he was put to death at Auburn State Prison in New York. 1890 Hall of fame pitcher Cy Young made his major league debut with the Cleveland Spiders of the National League. 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia, and Serbia declared war against Germany. 1926 Warner Brothers premiered its "Vitaphone" sound-on-disc movie system in New York. 1926 Gertrude Ederle of New York became the first American woman to swim the English Channel. 1962 Jamaica became an independent dominion within the British Commonwealth. 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. 1965 The album "Help!" by the Beatles was released. 1978 Pope Paul VI died at Castel Gandolfo in Italy at age 80.

1997 British Prime Minister Tony Blair shook hands with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in the first meeting in 76 years between a British leader and the IRA's allies. 1997 Apple Computer and Microsoft agreed to share technology in a deal giving Microsoft a stake in Apple's survival. 1998 Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spent 8 1/2 hours testifying before a grand jury about her relationship with President Bill Clinton. 1998 A House committee voted to cite Attorney General Janet Reno for contempt of Congress for her refusal to turn over reports recommending that she seek an independent counsel to investigate campaign fund-raising. 2004 Funk singer Rick James died of a heart attack at age 56. 2005 Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier-son, Casey, was killed in Iraq, began a weeks-long protest outside President Bush's ranch in Texas. Current Birthdays Geri Halliwell turns 35 years old today. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis Singer Geri Halliwell (Spice Girls) turns 35 years old today.

77 electrocution | execution method | Britannica.com execution method Electrocution, method of execution in which the condemned person is subjected to a heavy charge of electric current . Electric chair, illustration from Scientific American magazine, 1888. Photos.com/Thinkstock Once the most widely used method of execution in the United States , electrocution was largely supplanted by lethal injection in the late 20th and early 21st centuries and is now used relatively rarely. The method applies one or more high voltage electrical currents through electrodes attached to the head and legs of a condemned inmate, who sits strapped to a chair. A typical electrocution lasts about two minutes. Electrocution was first adopted in 1888 in New York as a quicker and more humane alternative to hanging . Two years later, on August 6, 1890, New York state initiated its electric chair, executing William Kemmler at Auburn State Prison; in 1899 Martha Place became the first woman to be electrocuted. Kemmler’s highly publicized execution was a grotesque and fiery botch.

One New York Times reporter described the incident in detail, noting that it was “awful” and “the witnesses were so horrified by the ghastly sight that they could not take their eyes off it.” Kemmler’s face was bloody, his hair and skin scorched, and the death chamber’s “stench…unbearable.” According to the three doctors who conducted Kemmler’s autopsy, there was “[e]xtensive charring” of the body where the electrodes had been attached. Nevertheless, electrocution was soon adopted in other states and by its peak in 1949 was the method of execution in 26 states. The U.S. Supreme Court has never rendered a judgment as to whether electrocution violates the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment . However, considerable evidence suggests that the method can inflict on the inmate unnecessary pain, indignity, and physical mutilation (e.g., severe external burning and bleeding). Documentation of witnessed executions has shown a substantial pattern of consecutive mishaps. Similar Topics boiling Court challenges over the decades, which began with the Kemmler case, eventually led most states to abandon electrocution in favour of lethal injection.

By the early 21st century, electrocution was one of two methods (the other being lethal injection) that an inmate could choose in several states. ( Nebraska was the last U.S. state to use electrocution as the sole method of execution; in 2008 the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.) Nevertheless, even in jurisdictions where it was permissible, electrocution was rarely employed, a sharp contrast from earlier practice. For example, from 1890 to 1972 (when the Supreme Court commenced its moratorium on the death penalty), electrocution was used in 4,251 executions; from 1976 (when the Supreme Court ended the moratorium) through the early 21st century, it had been used in about 160 executions. Electrocution has not been widely adopted outside the United States, though it was used in the Philippines until 1976. See also capital punishment .

This Day in History - August 6 - Album on Imgur This Day in History - August 6 by bydand724 Aug 6 Electric Chair 1890 – At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler, convicted of murder, became the first person to be executed by electric chair. Judge Crater 1930 – Judge Joseph Force Crater stepped into a taxi in New York and disappeared, never to be seen again. Hiroshima 1945 – The United States B-29 Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy," an atomic bomb, on Hiroshima, Japan. Around 70,000 people are killed instantly, and some tens of thousands die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning.

Prometheus <Archive Execution> William Kemmler (First Man Executed In The Electric Chair) - Google Groups <Archive Execution> William Kemmler (First Man Executed In The Electric Chair) Showing 1-6 of 6 messages <Note: This is the death anniversary (March 28th 1889) of Tillie Zeigler who was murdered (with an axe, 26 whacks to the head) by her common- law husband, William Kemmler. Kemmler was executed - the first by electric chair - in New York on August 6th 1890. This is the New York Herald's account of that execution - one that didn't go as well as planned. Also, the typos, misspellings and omissions all belong to the New York Herald.> FROM: The New York Herald (August 7th 1890) ~ By Telegraph to The Herald BREATHED AFTER FIRST SHOCK Doctors Pronounced Him Dead and Then to Their Horror Discovered Their Mistake WITNESSES FAINT AND SICK Terror Added to the Scene by the Burning Parts of the Body.

DISAGREEMENT OF SCIENTISTS Not Satisfied That the New Method of Exe- cution is a Success AUBURN, N.Y., August 6th 1890 The killing of Kemmler to-day marks, I fear, the beginning and the end of electrocution, and it wreathes in shame the ages of the great Empire State who, entrusted with the terrific responsibility of killing a man as a man was never killed before, brought to the task imperfect machinery and turned and execution into a horror. William Kemmler is dead, indeed, but at what a price? He has paid a double penance for his crime and a penance for his childlike trust in man who by their carelessness have brought shame upon the great State whose servants The scene of Kemmler's execution was too horrible to picture. He died the death of Feeks, the linemen, who was slowly roasted to death in the sight of Man accustomed to every form of suffering grew faint as the awful spectacle was unfolded before their eyes.

Those who stood the sight were filled with awe as they saw the effects of this most potent of fluids which is only partly understood by those who have studied it most faithfully, as it slowly, to slowly, disintegrated the fibre and tissues of the body through The heaving of a chest which it had been promised would be stilled in an instant peace as soon as the circuit was completed, the foaming of the mouth, the bloody sweat, the writhing shoulders and all the other signs of THE ODOR OF BURNING FLESH. Horrible as these were they were made infinitely more horrible by the premature removal of the electrodes and the subsequent replacing of them for not seconds but minutes, until the room was filled with the odor of burning flesh and strong man fainted and felt like logs upon the floor. And all this done in the name of science. It would be strange, indeed, if this execution had been anything else than what it was-a shameful thing. There has been no feature connected with the punishment of William Kemmler that was not shameful. The instruments were stolen from the first place. They were admittedly imperfect.

But though the makers offered under pressure to build the State and machinery that could be relied upon, they were told that they were merely making a few hue and cry The events of to-day proof either that the dynamos were faulty or that the interested company had bribed some one to make them seems so. Yesterday, with 14 months behind him in which to complete his preparations, the Warden had the execution room moved and the newly repaired voltmetre put in a place where those conducting and execution could not see it or know whether it was registering 2,000 or 200 bolts. In the doctors were told before it was known that the facts had better be suppressed that the machine was only registering from 700 to 1,200 bolts, Nothing but a legislative inquiry will bring out the truth. And those who were present say that in the interests of humanity it is to be hoped that one will be had before another poor wretch is put on the official grill. Kemmler went to the slaughter like a big boy, trusting and hopeful, leading ill will to none and with no apparent fear of what was coming.

He chided his executioners for their nervousness and did everything in his power to help them make a good job of it. Not a cloud blocked the morning sky as he sauntered into the chamber of death, adjusting his cravat as he went. Without the prison walls a vast crowd was collected in the Windows of the death chamber were closely watched. The ivy on the great gray walls was filled with twittering sparrows, the St. Bernard barked in its kennel. The rifle and lariat armed guards mounted to their wanted places on the prison parapets, and the prisoners were turned out at seven just as usual. It was not until little District Attorney Quimby, of Buffalo, came tottering down the steps, his face purpling and every fibre in his being trembling, and whispered, "It Is over," that people knew the end had come. The doctors sitting in a semi-circle about the Rome saw a quiet fellow enter, accompanied by the Warden. SHAVED HIS HEAD.

A monk's spot had been rabidly caught on the crowd of Kemmler's head in order to make a place for the sponge of the upper electro, and the death warrant had been read and the new brown trousers and vest and spotless shirt put on hand the minister had prayed and read the Scriptures, while Kemmler When Kemmler sat down in that share that has so quickly earned the title of the chair of death the morning sun streamed in the window and kissed the floor. It touched with light the face, stupid perhaps, but placid. It was the faces around about that were the hue of ashes. It was the Warden of the prison who could scarcely find the handle to work with. The story of the drama that followed his told below by an eye witness. Of the parts played by the various actors that some speak for themselves. Nine minutes, that seemed like an hour, cut by at last, and the deed was done. It was not until an hour after that the body was cold enough to put under the shining scalpels of the post-mortem inquisitors.

The doctors came out of the prison determined to be discreet and silent, but honest indignation soon overmastered them and it was not long before they were talking of the horrors they had seen. The autopsy was made very carefully, and the doctors made it through. They could not have any legal disputes as to whether the man was dead nor as to the cause of death, so Dr. Jenkins took the chest and abdominal region and Dr. Daniels the brain and head and spinal cord, and with deft fingers dissected them while the others looked on. They found a splendid specimen of physical manhood. They found to their surprise a brain that weighed forty-five ounces, the exact normal weight. When they came to remove the skull they found that in the small blood vessels between the brain and the skull all the blood was like charcoal. It was not burned to ashes, but all the fluid had been evaporated. The skull But it was at the base of the spinal cord, where the electrode touched, that the burning was most terrible. The examination of the spinal cord showed negative results. The doctors could find no trace of the current which had Across the forehead and those where the straps had pressed were slight discolorations.

The burned spot on the back was four inches in circumference. The blood retained its fluidity during the autopsy, showing very slight tendency to coagulation. The water in both sponges had evaporated. The doctors helped themselves generously to interesting parts of the dead man's body, and then the inquest, so far as it could be carried on without the use of microscope and the finer analysis, was finished. Kemmler was ready for his bed in the prison cemetery and the quick consuming of his remains by quicklime which the law imposes. The people of Auburn are very grateful to-night that at last Kemmler is A TERRIBLE SEEN WHICH HE SAW IN THE EXECUTION ROOM. AUBURN, N.Y., AUGUST 6, 1890 I am a reporter of the Herald and, so far as I know, the only special newspaper representative who saw this most grievous failure. I will try to relate a plain and simple tale, giving all the details so far as I was able to see them.

I need not say that I was stricken with horror at what I saw, but I did not forget my duty nor permit my eyes to stray from the ghastly drama that was enacted in that room of death. The first arrivals within the prison yard where the chaplain of the prison and Rev. W. E. Houghton, Kemmler spiritual adviser. They came in at five o'clock. Before that time they had been some bringing at the Bell, but no Dr. Houghton and the chaplain went to the Warden's office for a minute and then were escorted to the lower floor and along the familiar passage which they had tried so often together to Kemmler's cell. They found the condemned man awake and talking with his guards, McNaughton and Dunlon. McNaughton had remained after the end of his watch, midnight, that he might see the prisoner in the morning and did him farewell.

He had refused to be present Kemmler had an inkling of the approximate time set for the execution last night, yet he slept through the night as he had through all the nights just preceding it, as calmly and as peacefully as a healthy man might sleep who had no sword of Damocles hanging over his head. KEMMLER DRESSED HIMSELF. Dr. Houghton and the chaplain found him awake when they went in and arraying himself in the new suit of clothing which the Warden had furnished him. There were a pair of trousers of mixed yellow pattern and woolen material, a light sack coat of dark gray and a vest of the same pattern. Under these he wore his striped drawers and a white linen shirt and brown mixed socks. His shoes were neatly polished, around his neck was a low standing collar such as he had learned to affect since he became an inmate of the prison and become accustomed to civilized attire, about that was a narrow linen tie with little white squares within black checks. This was tied in a neat bow. In fact Kemmler's appearance was quite spruce and natty.

The coat hid from immediate view a peculiarity in the trousers-a semi- oval opening cut in the back from the waistband half way down the seat for the purpose of giving free access to the electrode in the back of the chair when Dr. Houghton and the chaplain remained with the condemned man until the time he was called to meet his death. They prayed with him and talked to him particularly of the promises of the Savior. Kemmler listened attentively to all they said and reiterated in his plain way his faith in the Bible lessons which he had been talked. He seemed inclined to take a rather light view of the situation, and he laughed and joked about little things-such things as he could comprehend, and they were very little and very few. He was by far the most unconcerned member of the In the meantime the witnesses or gathering in the Warden's office upstairs. Dr. Fell was one of the first to arise and he busied himself with the preparation in the inner room of some microscope slides, with which he proposed to make tests of the blood, skin, &c., after death and before the JENKINS TO WIELD THE KNIFE. Dr.

Daniels came in a little later with a bundle of surgical instruments under his arm. He had been up until two o'clock in a consultation of physicians over the programme for the autopsy, in which no agreement had been reached. Some of the physicians had held out that Dr. Jenkins, of New York, in view of his long experience with subjects who died of electric shocks, ought to do the work of the surgeon, while Dr. Southwick, who feels a personal responsibility for the electric method of punishment, and some others were anxious that Dr. Daniels, of Buffalo, should wield the surgeon's The matter was undetermined when the conference broke up in fact, it was not determined when the physicians assembled at the prison this morning, and there was not a final determination until the execution had taken place and the autopsy was about to be held, when the claims of Dr. Jenkins or recognize. Dr. Southwick came in with Dr. Daniels, and one after another the other witnesses followed until almost the full number had gathered. Still some of the most important of the experts were not insight, and Warden Durston, appearing on the scene, became anxious about them. At twenty-three minutes past six became down the hall and asked we're Dr.

Spitzka was. The reply was that the doctor had not arrived. The correspondent of one of the press associations was then asked for, and he, too, was not to be found. "These people ought to remember," said the Warden, "that we have got a great big place and 1000 men to handle here, and we must act promptly and the on-time. I'll not wait much longer." Almost as he spoke the press representative was seen coming in the gate, and a few minutes later Dr. Spitzka came hurrying up to walk a bag of instruments in his hand. "It's not my fault," said the doctor. "I was waiting for the others, and they are still at breakfast." INTO THE EXECUTION ROOM. "Time's up," said the Warden a minute later, and turning around without further ceremony he started toward the back hallway of the prison, the witnesses following him. The door to a flight of narrow stairs running next to the inner wall was opened by a turnkey and a little procession passed in. There was no identification of any of them further fan for presentations at the gate of the little card which read:- Admit CHARLES F.

DURSTON, Agent and Warden There was no order of precedence. They went down the stairs helter- skelter without much conversation, but with very little restraint. At the bottom of the stairs the Warden threw open a little door and ushered the party, to their great astonishment, directly into the execution room. Then they learned for the first time that the location of the electric chair had been changed. It was changed probably for two reasons-that Kemmler might not see the lever thrown to turn the current into his body, and that the witnesses might be in ignorance of the identity of the man who controlled the lever. Mr. Durston says to-day that the identity of that man will never be known. So the electric chair was taken out of the room where the voltmetre and the lever and the incandescent lights and the other paraphernalia of the apparatus replaced" in a room which was free of any of the other furniture This was the corner room below the clerk's office, in the first band of the wall beyond the main entrance to the prison. It was illuminated by two windows about five feet from the floor.

One of these faced the street and the other, just across the corner of the wall from it, faced down the yard. The first was hung with a green curtain to keep out prying glances. Each of them was screened, but in spite of the smallness of the Rome and away in which it was enclosed, at no time was the heat in it oppressive, either during the execution or during the autopsy. At the right of the main door of the room, the 1 through which the witnesses entered, was the electric chair. The faced the windows, but it could not be seen easily in their dim light, so three of the gas jets and the two fixtures that hung from the ceiling were lighted, and they cast a dim yellow The chair has never been properly described-that is, it has been changed so often that no description of the published heretofore was in any great degree accurate. It was fashioned like a square, high backed, easy chair. The seed was of perforated wood. The arms were about two inches broad.

Across the back of the chair, between 8.few inches from the top and appoint about midway between the top and bottom were three wooden braces, to the upper to of which was fastened a cushion of hard rubber, three inches thick of the top and shaved off toward the bottom to about one-half that thickness. Midway between these and the seat of the chair, have a point where the arms joined the back, was another brace-a broad board. In front of it was stretched a heavy cotton band, to which was attached one of the electrodes of the dynamo. This electrodes consisted of the top of rubber, within which was another cup of metal, to which was attached a sponge. This apparatus was attached firmly to a wooden button, behind which was a spiral spring resting against a broad board. Running up from the top of the chair was a "figure four" framework of heavy wood, through the point of which passed the wire to the second electrode. This wire was twisted into a heavy spiral immediately below the frame, and attached to this spiral was a cup similar to that at the base of the chair. Two wooden clamps held this frame in place or when released permitted to be moved up for down.

The wire which was attached to it ran into a button on the ceiling, once it was carried to the doorway and through the door frame into the next Rome. The wire to the other electrode brand to the floor, protected by a piece of wooden molding, and along the wall to the doorway, The straps on the chair were arranged so as to go around Kemmler's chest into diagonal directions, across his legs and around each of his limbs. They were broad leather straps, capable of resisting any ordinary pressure and certainly beyond the strength of any struggling mans. Along one side of the room ran a long bench. On the other end of the Rome replaced shares to accommodate all of the witnesses. Not all of them were present, and one of them who came, District Attorney George Quimby, of Buffalo, left the Rome before the affair had been carried to its conclusion, in spite of the Warden's determination that no one should leave the building or even the execution chamber until Kemmler was dead and the certificate of District Attorney Quimby is not a very robust man, and the scenes in the death chamber were too much for his nerves.

He told the warden he must go out before the affair was half over, and when he got into the upper hallway He was the only member of the party who gave way completely, although several of the witnesses were prostrated for a brief spell and the chamber When the door had been locked upon the party the Warden asked them to seat themselves, and then he quickly set about his preparations. There was a low murmur of conversation while Mr. Durston looked at the straps and walked for a minute into the next room to see that the electricians were in place. While this interval was passing Dr. Jenkins, of New York, Dr. Balch and Dr. Shrady came hurriedly in. They had delayed over their breakfast at the hotel, and as they took their seats Dr. Balch entered into an animated conversation with Dr. Spitzka about their tardiness and about Dr. Spitzka's The conversation was broken by the Warden, who walked over to where Dr. Spitzka and Dr. McDonald sat side by side and said:- "How long it shall I have the current on?

You she'll say whether it shall be fifteen seconds or three or five." "Fifteen seconds," Doctor's bits to promptly replied. "That's a long time," said the Warden. "Will you say, Doctor?" Said Dr. Spitz can, turning to his colleague. "You have had more to do with these things that I have." "Well, I have left the matter entirely to you, "so the Warden. "How much "Well, say ten seconds at least," replied Dr. McDonald. "All right," was the Warden's laconic answer, and he turned sharply around and went into the next room. During his absence Dr. Spitzka said:-"Has any gentleman here a stopwatch?" Sheriff Conway, of Troy, tendered one, but at that moment Dr. McDonald produced one from his waistcoat pocket and Dr. Spitzka declined to sheriff's There was a home of conversation about the room. The party had hardly got quite settle down. No one was looking for the near approach for a climax. But Warden Durston is a man of deeds, not of words.

He had left the Rome after his consultation with the two doctors to go direct to the cell where He said, "Good morning, Bill," as he went in, and a prisoner replied pleasantly, "Good morning." Without further preliminaries the Warden took from his pocket the death Kemmler stood quietly through the reading, his spiritual adviser is standing on either side of him. When it was over the Warden said, "Come." Kemmler turned and said "Goodby" to his keeper, McNaughton, and whose other keeper, Donlon. Then he shook hands with the chaplain and Dr. Haughton, saying "Goodby" to each in an animated, cheerful tone. He might have been going out for a quiet walk for all his voice showed. Coming back up for cord or he stepped in behind the Warden and the little procession started out. It walked in upon the assemblage in the execution room in the most unconventional way. The door opened and in walked the Warden, behind him Kemmler, without a falter in his walk or a bit of hesitancy in his demeanor.

His face was quite characterless, it's only expression in that which it took from a full heavy black beard cut around and parted in the middle. His manner was calmer than that of the Warden, which is always a nervous and bustling. The two ministers were quiet and apparently unmoved. Both of them had witnessed execution before, and Dr. Houghton had been the witness of several AA-Dynamo wire. BB-Wire to connect with Kemmler's head and base of spine. C-Goes on top of Kemmler said. D-Single button to dynamo room. E- Voltmetre register. F-Resistance box. G-Lamp board and register. H-Lamp switch. I-Main switch, by handle of which execution or will connect current. Kemmler stopped as the Warden stopped and glanced rather curiously about the His beard gave to his face a quizzical half amused expression, which was ghastly under the conditions. Only his eyes were restless. They wandered about a little, but they returned regularly to the calm face of the Warden, in whom he had put his strength for the final test.

It was a confidence in the Warden's assurances rather than a firm faith in his hereafter that buoyed him up and carried him through his experience in the execution room. Whenever he showed a disposition to move about in the chair the Warden would encourage him with assurances that it was all right, and they seemed quite SAT DOWN FOR A MOMENT. "Gave me a chair, will you," said the Warden, as he stepped in front of the semi-circle of witnesses. A chair was handed him from the circle and he placed it merely beside the execution chair and Kemmler sat down and it he leaned forward a little as he did, his elbows partly resting on his knees to present clock at this time marked thirty-four minutes past six. "Now, gentleman," said Warden Durston, looking about the room, "this is William Kemmler. I have just read the death warrant to him and told him that he has got to die and if he has anything to say you'll say it." The little prisoner had looked up once or twice during his speech. He was thoroughly composed and evidently prepared for this will act in the drama.

When the Warden stopped he began in a monotonous, thin voice to recite what he had evidently committed to memory in preparation for the event. Doubtless he knew that his words will go down in history and he had his lesson well learn. He addressed his audience and a commonplace way and without hesitation. What he said was not particularly significant except as it calls some doubts on the security of his religious convictions rather than in a blind faith in what he terms "luck." These are his words:- "Well, gentleman, I wish everyone good luck in this world, and I think I am going to a good place, and the papers have been sang a lot of stuff that isn't so. That's all I have to say." And so with a parting shot at what he was good enough to refer to not long ago as "those d---d reporters," William Kemmler took his leave of earth. The quiet demeanor of the man as he entered had made a strong impression on those in the room. His self-possession after his oratorical effort simply amazed them.

He got up out of his chair as though he were anxious to try the experiment, not as though he courted death, but as though he was thoroughly prepared for it. Turning his back to the Warden and his profile to the spectators, he drew off his coat, which he handed to Mr. Durston. Then he began to unbutton his waistcoat, but the Warden told him not to do that and so he calmly buttoned it up again. Afterward he unfastened the two lower buttons and they remained unfastened to the end the Warden took the coat and laid it on the table have the side of the room. Then he turned back and examined the opening in Kemmler's trousers. The shirt was in the way and Warden Durston pulled it through and cut it off.

Kemmler calmly adjusted his necktie and as calmly sat down in the electric The moment he was in the chair and had settled back so that his head rested against the rubber cushion the raise his arms and held them bowed so that they would not interfere with the work of the Warden and his assistant "Don't worry about this matter, be perfectly cool," the Warden had said has Kemmler was removing his coat, and Kemmler was undoubtedly the coolest man Warden Durston caught hold of the straps on the right and Deputy Vieling of those on the left and they began quickly to adjust them. There was no delay. Kemmler constantly encouraged the workers at the straps with "Take your time; don't be in a hurry; do it well; be sure everything is all right." He did not speak with any nervous apprehension. Warden Durston leaned over, drawing the buckle of the straps about the arm. "It won't hurt you, Bill," he said, "I'll be with you all the time." A minute later Kemmler said, "There's plenty of time." He said it as calmly as the conductor of a streetcar might have encouraged a passenger not to hurry.

The straps were drawn diagonally across the chest from right to left and then from left to right. The arms were strapped down and the straps around the body were drawn into place. The Warden stooped and drew the condemned man's feet apart, so that his legs were near the legs of the chair. One of the attendants stepped forward, but the Warden said, "George will do that," and Vieling reached down and buckled the legs straps. The Warden in the meantime put his right hand on Kemmler's head and true it back against the rubber cushion. There was no resistance. The eyes, which had followed the Warden would almost doglike persistency, or now looking straight forward over the heads of the witnesses to the wall beyond. "Well, I wish everybody good luck," he said in a mechanical sort of way. It was a part of the lesson he had learned before leaving his cell. He cleared his throat after this effort, and for a moment he seemed to breathe hard. At this time the Warden took in his hand to harness that was to fit over the face. The broad straps covered the forehead, part of the nose and a greater part of the beard.

The mouth was left free, however, and as the Warden drew the buckle Kemmler said:-"Durston, see that things are right." Things were right so far as the Warden could make them and all that was left to do was to adjust the head electrode. Vieling unfastened the wooden thumbscrews and began to move the "figure four" down. His hand trembled a little as he did it, and the cup did not fit down upon the head in a secure way as Kemmler thought. "Oh, you better press that down further, I guess," he said. "Press that down." The Warden followed his instructions and press that down more securely. Then Kemmler broke out in another spasmodic remark:-"well, I wanted to the best I can," he said. "I can do any better than that." As he spoke Dr. Fell, with a long can in his hand, was wetting sponges at the two electrodes. A little group of doctors stood about the chair. Kemmler was pinioned so close that he could hardly have moved a muscle except those The Warden took a last look at the straps. "This is all right," he said.

"All right," said Dr. Spitzka, and then bent over and said, "God bless you, "Thank you," said the little man, quietly. "Ready?" Said the Warden. "Goodbye," said the Warden to Kemmler. There was no response. GAVE THE SIGNAL. The Warden stepped to the door leading into the next room. It was then forty-three and one-half minutes past six o'clock by the prison clock. "Everything is ready," said the Warden to some one hidden from view in the The answer came like a flash in the sudden convulsion that went over the frame of the chair. If it seemed rigid before under the influence of the straps, there was doubly so now has it strained against them. The seconds ticked off. Dr. McDonald, who was holding the stopwatch, said Two voices near him echoed, "Stop." The Warden stepped to the door of the next room and repeated the word "Stop." As the syllable past his lips the forehead of the man in the chair crude dark and color, while his nose, or so much of it as was exposed, appeared a There was very little apparent relaxation of the body, however.

The fly lighted on the nose and walked about unconcernedly. The witnesses drew "He's dead," said Spitzka, authoritatively. "Oh, yes, he's dead," said McDonald. "You'll notice," said Spitzka, "the post-mortem appearance of the nose There is that remarkable change that cannot be mistaken for anything else, that remarkable appearance of the nose." The other doctors nodded ascent. They looked at the body critically for a minute and then Spitzka said, oh, undo that now. The body can be taken to "Well, I can't let you gentlemen out of here until I have your certificates," said the It was while this businesslike conversation was going on that Dr. Balch made "McDonald," he cried, "McDonald, look at that rupture," he pointed at the abrasion of the skin on Kemmler's right thumb. In the contraction of the muscles the figurehead scraped against it and removed the skin, and from that little wounded blood was flowing-and almost certain indication of life. A low cry of horror went through the assemblage. "Turned on the current," excitedly cried Dr. Spitzka.

"This man is not The crowd fell back from the chair, as though they were in danger. The Warden sprang into the closed door and pounded on it with his hand. "Start the current!" he cried. As he spoke of fluid began to drop from Kemmler's mouth and to run down his beard; a groaning sound came from his lips, repeated and growing louder each time. It seemed and age before the card was again turned on. In fact it was just seventy-three seconds from the end of the first contact when the first sound was heard to issue from Kemmler's lips, and it was not more than a half But every second to that time the horrible sound from those groaning lips was becoming more distinct, as training of the chest against the leather harness stronger and more evident. The man was coming to life. The spectators grew faint and sick. Man who had stood over dead and dying man and had cut man to pieces without an emotion group pale and turned their heads away. One witness was forced to lie down while one of the doctors fanned him. But he and came at last. There was another convulsion of the body, and began it became rigid with the rigidity of iron.

"That man wasn't dead," cried Spitzka excitedly. As he spoke the body twitched again. The electrician had given the current gain new alternation and now 2,000 volts or playing in short, successive shocks down Kemmler spine. The sound ceased with the first convulsion, but the fluid continued to trip from the mouth and down the beard, making the body a sickening spectacle. "Keep it on now until he's killed," said one of the doctors. The body twitched again, and began was rigid. "Keep it on! Keep it on!" Cried Warden Durston through the door. Silence reigned for a moment. A bell without began to told solemnly. It's ceased, and began door silence. BURNED BY THE CURRENT. Then from the chair came a sizzling sound, as of meet cooking on hand. Following it immediately a billow of smoke came from the body and filled the air of the room with the odor of burning hair. There was a cry from all the members of the little group, and Warden Durston cried through the door leading to the next room to turned the current off. It stopped and began to body retained almost all of its rigor.

That rigor it retained, to, when the harness was removed and it was lifted to the table where the autopsy took place. Dr. fell had been quick with his cannon of salted water when the second current was turned on. He had wedded the electrodes again and wedded them thoroughly. He breathed a sigh of relief when the current was turned off. "Well, there's one thing about this," he said. "The man never suffered a bit of pain," and strange to say, doctors do not disagree on this point, as all of those who witnessed the execution joined Dr. fell later in this expression of opinion. "The man was killed instantly, I think." Said Dr. Spitzka. "Those were only muscular contractions, and a fellow never suffered any pain. That's one sure "Now a wears George," said Warden Durston and Georgia appearing from the crowd at the other end of the room he and the Warden began to release the body. The head electrode was removed and the face harness taken off. The doctors stood about an examined the phenomena visible in the skin and in the In the meantime Dr. Krieger and Dr.

Conway had brought from the other end of the room a long table on which the body was to be laid for the post- mortem "Now, William, will you take off the straps?" Said the Warden, has one of his assistants came in from the next room, and beginning with the right arm the limbs were released and then the body. The inanimate form did not collapse. It did not move, but sat upright, the face, but for its ghastly color, looking much as it had in life. Dr. Fell stepped forward and with a surgical instrument made a small incision in the forehead, from which he drew some blood for microscopic An examination of the head showed that there was a rain marked in the hair, but those who examined it said that there was no burn there. Later, though, at the autopsy it was developed that there was a bad burn of the hair end of the scalp, and that the sponge in the electrode was also The hemorrhage from the wounded in the head, with the salt water from the sponge, had slowed down and stained the white shirt on the bosom and the "I can't see much," said Dr.

Fell, from the table where he was examining the bit of blood he had taken from the forehead. "If I had a light I might do something. This is the best light I can get under the circumstances." SIGNING THE CERTIFICATE. While Dr. Fell was making his examination of the blood and Dr. Spitzka was lifting the eyelid half open, to examine the eyes, the Warden had taken his seat at the table and was affixing his signature to the certificate of Then he called the attention of the witnesses to it and one after another they, too, signed it. Then the names were red off aloud to be certain that all or their end of the last seen in the first contact of the Kemmler drama The following is the certificate as it was filed in the office of the County Clerk to-day by Warden Durston:- COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER, IN AND FOR ERIE COUNTY. The people of the state of New York against William Kemmler, otherwise called John Hart. State of New York, County of Cayuga ss:-eye, Charles F.

Durston, agent and waden of Auburn State Prison, at Auburn, Cayuga county, do hereby certify, pursuant to the State of New York, that in obedience to, and in conformity with, the judgment and sentence of the above named Court and the warrants of said Court, a copy of which is hereto annexed. I, said agent and warden, at the said State Prison at the City of Auburn, on the 6th day of August, 1890, did attend upon the execution of the judgment and sentence, and that the said William Kemmler, otherwise called John Hart, the convict therein mentioned, was then and there, to-wit, at the place and time last aforesaid, executed in conformity to the said judgment and sentence of said Court and in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of New York. I do further certifies that the persons whose names are here hereafter signed where the persons invited by me as such agent and warden to be present at said execution, and that said persons were all the persons present and witnessing the execution of said judgment and sentence upon the said William Kemmler, other wise called John Hart.

Dated at Auburn, Cayuga county, State of New York, this 6th day of August, The undersigned, being the persons and all the persons present and witnessing the execution of the judgment and sentence set forth in the foregoing certificate, do hereby, pursuant to the statute and have the City of Auburn, County of Cayuga and State of New York aforesaid, on the 6th day of August, 1890, subscribe to foregoing certificate. Louis Balch, W. T. Nellis, J. M. Jenkins, W. T. Jenkins, Joseph Fowler, Henry A. Argue, C. W. Daniels, A. P. Southwick, O. A. Houghton, C. R. Huntley, H. E. Allison, T. K. Smith, E. C. Spitzka, Carlos F. McDonald, George C. Fell, Oliver A. Jenkins, Joseph C. Velling, Horatio Yates, Tracy C. Becker, Michael Conway, George Grantham Bain, Frank W. Mack, George F. Shrady, George W. Irish, Robert Dunlop.

This does away with a Coroner's jury. After the certificate was signed a little group of doctors gathered at one end of the long table and its began to discuss the autopsy, while the sightless eyes of the figure in the chair glared at them. "A quarter past eight will be the time," the Warden finally announced, and the door was opened to permit the exit of the witnesses of the first he electricide in Electrocution - Crime Museum Electrocution Home » Crime Library » Electrocution Dr. Alfred Southwick received the idea for electrocution after he had witnessed an inebriated man die from touching an electric generator. Southwick noticed that the man died instantly and without pain. He found this to be in sharp contrast to the existing methods of executing a person, such as a hanging. Electric Chair After studying the effects of electricity on the human body, Southwick conceived the idea of a chair able to send a powerful electrical current through a prisoner condemned to death. He took his idea to the Governor of New York, David Hill, and proposed the concept of an electric chair as an effective and more humanitarian method for capital punishment.

A man named Harold Brown who worked for master inventor Thomas Edison built the original electric chair based on Southwick’s design. He completed the first working model in 1888, and demonstrations were performed on live animals to prove how well it worked. Brown’s chair was fast and efficient, and the authorities accepted the electric chair as a method of execution. In 1890, William Kemmler suffered the first electrocution execution after he murdered his wife with a hatchet. On August 6th, Kemmler sat down in the chair. The executioner threw the switch to start the machine, and an electric current tore through Kemmler’s body. It left him unconscious but still alive. A second jolt of electricity was needed to finish the job after the chair had been recharged, and this time Kemmler’s body began to bleed and caught on fire. Spectators referred to the 8-minute-long process as a gruesome event that was far worse than a hanging. The concept behind the electric chair calls for a prisoner to have their arms and legs strapped in securely. Damp sponges are placed on the condemned’s head and legs, and electrodes are attached to the sponges.

After the prisoner’s head is covered, the executioner throws a switch to release a sharp blast of electrical current through the chair and into the electrodes. The sponges help to conduct the electricity and bring about a swift death. By 1899, the design of the electric chair had improved, and death by electrocution became the most common form of capital punishment in America until the 1980’s, when lethal injection became the preferred method in most states. For more information, please visit: William Kemmler – The First Electrocution, August 6, 1890. | Robert Walsh William Kemmler – The First Electrocution, August 6, 1890. William Kemmler and the world’s first electric chair. August 6, 1890 saw the dawn of a new age for criminal history. At Auburn Prison in upstate New York there was the execution.of one William Kemmler, condemned for murdering his girlfriend Matilda Ziegler with a hatchet. There was nothing remarkable about Kemmler (an alcoholic vegetable peddler with a vicious temper) or about his crime.

There wasn’t anything unusual about an execution in New York State, either., hangings being a fairly regular event. Matilda ‘Tillie’ Ziegler, Kemmler’s girlfriend and victim. What was unusual was the method. Americans had been hanged, shot, drowned and burned at various, but none of them had ever been electrocuted. Even the word ‘electrocute’ was brand new, coined specially to reflect what its enthusiasts clumsily named ‘electrical execution.’ It had never been done before and, after its nightmarish debut, there was much debate about whether it should ever be done again. Of course, it was. There have been over 4000 electrocutions in American penal history since Kemmler’s and, while the ‘Old Sparky’ is (rather ironically) at death’s door due to the introduction of the gas chamber and lethal injection, it was once by far the most popular means for America’s prisons to perform human pest control. State after State threw away its gallows and plugged into the latest way to get the job done.

They did so with varying degrees of enthusiasm (New York really loved it, South Dakota only used it once and even then they had to borrow one from the State of Nebraska because they didn’t have their own). They also turned on to the new idea with varying degrees of competence (often with hideous results for all concerned, especially the condemned). Hanging can be the least inhumane method of execution if properly performed, so there’s a bitter irony in the reason for Old Sparky’s long tenure. Which was that many American executioners would probably have found it a challenge correctly hanging curtains, let alone humans. Bungled hangings were regular events, with prisoners often beheaded or slowly strangled by bungling hangmen using faulty or unsuitable equipment. British hangman Albert Pierrepoint was openly scathing of American hangmen and thier kit, sarcastically calling the traditional hangman’s rope a ‘cowboy’s coil.’ After one horror show too many at the hanging of Roxalana Druse, New York State Governor David Hill decide to form a ‘Death Commission’ to decide which method would best replace the rope. Enter two very big names, an inventor, a dentist and, of course, William Kemmler.

The idea of electrocution came from a dentist, Alfred Southwick of Buffalo, New York. Southwick had seen a drunk die instantly from accidentally staggering up against an electrical generator and, being a stauch supporter of capital punishment, decided that the new technology would be perfect for deliberately killing people. Also, being a dentist, he thought a chair with straps all over it was the best way to convey the current to the inmate. He left the actual building of the ‘hot seat’ to Harold Brown, an electrical engineer working for a rather famous name. Enter one Thomas Edison. Edison had been approached to oversee the creation of the electric chair but, being an opponent of capital punishment, had firmly refused to take part. Unfortunately, Edison became locked in the ‘War of the Currents’ with his great rival George Westinghouse. Edison championed direct current (DC) while Westinghouse was marketing an alternating current (AC) system. Both wanted to corner the rapidly-snowballing market in electricity and related products. Westinghouse’s system was far more efficient at transmitting electricity over long distances, but it was required far higher voltages to do so, making it potentially far more dangerous to technical staff and consumers.

Edison saw that as an opportunity to bury his rival’s new system and, putting his personal opposition to executions aside (along with many other principles) decided to make full use of AC being more dangerous to human life. He started by mounting a publicity campaign openly touting AC as deadly and his own DC as the safe option. He mounted a series of public demonstrations, electrocuting animals ranging from cats and dogs to a fully-grown elephant. Then he reconsidered his attitude to the death penalty. What better way was there to discredit George Westinghouse by harnessing both his system and his name to death? Westinghouse had refused to sell the State of New York a generator for executions so Brown, funded by Edison, bought one under a flase name, had it delivered to Brazil and then shipped back to Auburn Prison. This infuriated Westinghouse, but not nearly as much as the more personal aspect of Edison’s campaign. The new method, in the eyes of many Americans, needed a new name.

‘Electrocution’, a combinations of ‘electricity’ and ‘execution’ caught on to replace the clumsy phrase ‘electrical execution.’ Edison campaigned in favour of describing inmates as having been ‘Westinghoused.’ With Kemmler, a violent drunkard, ensconced on Auburn’s Death Row, Westinghouse funded his appeals. Edison secured large funding from one of his investors, J.P Morgan, to ensure Kemmler’s appeals failed. They did. William Kemmler was destined to take a prime (and unwilling) place in criminal history as the first inmate ever to do the ‘hot squat.’ At Auburn Prison preparations went ahead. Harold Brown enlisted one Edwin Davis to help perfect the final touches to the ‘electrocution chair.’ Davis was a qualified electrical contractor at Auburn and was the perfect choice to become the world’s first ‘State Electrician.’ Davis would execute around 200 inmates and train two of his proteges, John Hurlbut and Robert Elliott, both of whom succeeded him as executioners. Between them, these three men would execute over 700 prisoners and Elliott would be credited with perfecting electrocution as an execution method. For now, though, Davis was in charge.

Davis designed and patented the first electrodes which on early chairs were fixed to the inmate’s head and the base of their spine. After much gruesome experimentation, electrodes were fixed to an inmate’s head and leg as standard. August 6, 1890 dawned bright and clear. The chair had been installed, linked to the prison generator (later chairs had their own separate generator) and thoroughly tested. Warden Charles Durston woke Kemmler at 5am, gave him a final breakfast and had him dressed for the occasion. At 6:30am the grim ritual began. Kemmler, his head and spine shaved and with a slit in his shirt-tails, was led into a room in front of 17 witnesses including 3 doctors and numerous reporters. He was asked for his last words which proved grimly ironic in the light of what was about to happen: “Take it easy and do it properly, I’m in no hurry…” Kemmler probably would have been in a hurry if he’d known what was coming and the execution team, given that they’d never actually electrocuted anyone before, certainly didn’t do it properly.

About the best that could be said for the witnesses was that their misery would be less horrendous than Kemmler’s. The grim facade of Auburn Prison in upstate New York, the prison is still in use, but New York repealed the death penalty in 1965. The last execution in New York was in August, 1963. At 6:38am the signal was given and Davis threw the switch. 1000 volts of alternating current seared Kemmler’s body and nervous system. After 17 seconds the power was shut off and Doctor Charles Spitzka stepped forward fully expecting to certify Kemmler dead. He wasn’t. Spitzka initially thought Kemmler was dead and said as much. The chair’s inventor, dentist Alfred Southwick, proudly stood before the witnesses and in front of Kemmler’s smoking body and uttered the immortal words: “Gentlemen, we live in a higher civilisation from this day.” Then the dead man began to breathe and started twisting against the straps and moaning increasingly loudly. Horrified witnesses blanched as Warden Durston and Doctor Spitzka hurriedly discussed what to do.

Either the current had been too low or not applied for long enough so the obvious solution was to double the voltage and increase the duration. Spitzka spoke briefly and sharply: “Have the current turned on again, quick. No delay!” The current was turned on quick. Not knowing what they were doing the execution team turned it on far too high for far too long. For a full minute 2000 volts cooked Kemmler alive. His remaining hair smouldered, his flesh singed and blood vessels burst under his skin, causing him to bleed through his pores. Smoke and a stench of burnt meat filled the room while witnesses tried to get out through locked doors and several fainted.and slumped around the floor. Kemmler did at least die, but in a way that nearly made his the first and last electrocution in criminal history. The newspapers competed to run the gaudiest tales of his suffering, as though it needed to look any worse than it actually was. Two of the doctors present, Charles Spitzka and Carlos MacDonald, feuded bitterly and publicly for years afterward. Edison, whose role in the affair was now public knowledge, refused to comment or to even speak to reporters.

His great rival George Westinghouse, asked for his opinion of the execution, was far more forthcoming and brutally frank: “They would have done better using an axe…” Of course, the chair, its components and the overall method were steadily refined and perfected over the next century or so. Davis’s apprentices Hurlbut and Elliott would go on to perfect the process and kill hundreds doing so, Although Hurlbut did commit suicide shortly after resigning from as the euphemistically-titled ‘State Electrician.’ All of New York’s executioners after Davis had to be qualified electricians, and were paid $150 per prisoner with an extra $50 for any additional prisoner during multiple executions. Good money if you could stomach pulling the switch. Tennessee’s electric chair at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution There’s a grim postscript to this story. Until earlier this year the electric chair had fallen into disfavour and disuse. No States retained it as their primary method, having changed to lethal injection as their first choice.

The current refusal by drug companies to supply American prisons with the drugs for lethal injection has led to experimentation with different drug combinations and, in turn, botched lethal injections such as Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma dn Joseph Wood in Arizona. Wood took over two hours to die in a process that should have taken minutes.Which is why the State of Tennessee, previously discarding their electric chair for lethal injection, have reinstated electrocution and dusted off their ‘hot seat.’ Unlike William Kemmler and 4000 or so other inmates, Old Sparky has risen from the grave., .

Question: In New York in 1890, William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by what method?
Answer: Electric chair